Prospect Lake

Prospect Lake, 1932

Prospect Lake, September 12, 2010

Prospect Lake is the centerpiece of Memorial Park, a few blocks west of our house. Pat and I like to walk around the lake in the late afternoon. It's a popular place -- lots of people enjoying the footpath, kids using the playground, and during the summer there are always plenty of water lovers jetskiing or boating on the lake. I found this picture of Prospect Lake taken in 1932, more than 25 years before our house was even built. I decided to try and duplicate the image in the modern day. I did my best! Upon review it does look like the original picture was taken from a farther away perspective, using a longer lens, but my shot is a fairly close approximation. In both images you can see the spires of the Union Printers Home just beyond the trees at top right, and the bluffs of Palmer Park to the left.

About four years ago the City decided to drain Prospect Lake to repair a leak. It took months to drain, repair and refill it. As the water level slowly went lower and lower, they began to find all sorts of things on the lake bed -- including an entire Volkswagen Beetle! Who knows how long it had been there. The best guess on how it got there was that someone must have driven it out onto the frozen lake during the winter, and as the ice gave way the driver "abandoned ship" and left the car to sink.

Of course, just before I managed to snap this photo, the lone jetskier on the lake at the time decided to take a break, so my picture's not as exciting as the one taken in 1932. But there were plenty of people at the lake today, enjoying this beautiful end-of-summer day.

ETA, 10/06/2010: Tragically, on September 20th, just a few days after this blog post, two high schoolers drowned in Prospect Lake mere yards from the spot where I stood to take this picture. Please, teach your children to swim. It's an important life skill. It could save their life one day.